Why AMD’s ultrathin notebooks are doomed to fail

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Thin is in, just in case you haven’t noticed. It’s hard not to, with Apple pushing its newly refreshed MacBook Air models to the masses and Intel counter-punching with an ultrabook form factor for Windows-based PCs (all the while serving both sides, just like a boxing promoter). Wondering where Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fits into the equation? It doesn’t.

Not by necessity, mind you, but by choice. AMD’s answer to ultrabooks is its ultrathin platform, which are thin-and-light notebooks built around either the chip maker’s E-Series accelerated processing units (APUs), otherwise known as Brazos 2.0, or Trinity (A-Series). Other than the processor, there aren’t any hard and fast rules for notebook makers to follow, as there are with ultrabooks.

That’s problem No. 1, and it’s not a minor one. AMD’s lack of criteria for what constitutes an ultrathin puts consumers in the position of having to do more research then they may like, or may even be capable of. Tech savvy individuals can glance a spec sheet and know right away the sum of the parts, but Joe Sweatsock probably can’t (or at least doesn’t want to).

The other problem for AMD is that it’s falling back to the same old strategy of competing on price, only it’s going to have a much tougher time undercutting Intel in this round. Intel is reportedly getting ready to meet with suppliers in Taiwan to hammer out a strategy to build lower cost ultrabooks, which currently sell for $800 and up, minus the occasional discount.

AMD, meanwhile, has talked about selling ultrathins in the $600 to $900 range, the same price range where Intel is headed. If your strategy is to win on price, and you’re not able to do that, then you need to bring something else to the table.

The last problem AMD faces is one of apathy, or at least that’s the way it looks. Intel last year created a $300 million fund “to help drive innovation” in the ultrabook category and has been promoting the form factor ever since. The term “ultrabook” is fast becoming familiar in the mainstream. The same isn’t true of AMD, which isn’t pushing hundreds of millions of dollars into its ultrathin initiative, or even created a logo or a tagline.

It seems unlikely AMD would drop the ball and let Intel dominate the thin and light category, but then again, it’s played out like this before. Remember netbooks? AMD took a similar nonchalant approach to those, and by the time the chip designer made any kind of real push, netbooks were on their way out. For the sake of competition, let’s hope AMD starts approaching the ultrathin category with a little more urgency than it has up to this point.

Tagged In

I wouldn’t say “doomed to fail.” More like “Doomed to obscurity.” Brazos was the end result of an initiative Dirk Meyer talked about when he took over AMD. He wanted to create a platform that embraced netbook-style thin-and-light options, but offered definitively better performance at a slightly higher price.

Right idea, wrong time frame — netbook sales are shrinking. So “Ultrathin,” in some sense, is an attempt to hold on to areas where AMD has grown while simultaneously pushing this idea of the company as a way to get your weight and power consumption down while keeping prices low.

The degree to which this works will, as you note, be dependent on how many ultrabooks are confined to higher price points. If you check AMD’s latest statements, the company projects ultrathins starting at $500. Intel’s high-end ultrabooks chips start at $350. That idea — that you can buy an entire laptop for not much more than the price of an Intel chip — is a big part of what AMD is trying to sell.

But Intel’s UltraBook initiative TRULY LIMITS customer choice. If everything’s one thing there is no choice. Any lawyers here?

Joel Hruska

Christian,

Ultrabooks exist because consumers want them. No one, not even Intel, has said everything is going to be ultrabooks.

CDSemiPro

It is easy to criticize AMD for not spending millions (that it does not have) on the “ultrabook” initiative. Can you provide an alternative to that? AMD is doing the best with the limited resources it has.
By saving the $300 million that Intel is spending, AMD acquired SeaMicro which could help open new avenues for server sales.
It has to get creative in order to survive (now) and thrive (later).

havor

I think the conclusions are totally wrong.

I use 2 Brazos 1.0 systems at home (ASUS E45M1), one as HTPC in the bedroom, the other as PC for my wife.
And both deliver just fine performance for what they have to do, and i would not mind getting a small form laptop for when i am traveling.

Stocklone

Well if they aren’t as horrible as first gen ultrabooks, maybe they will stand chance. So far ultrabooks have been the most frustrating form factor to date for me. This generation looks a lot better. Maybe even something worth buying.

Techthisbuffalo

truth is amd ultrabooks are aimed at a more gamer type audience with their improved gpu performance and if it is going to be cheaper what makes you think everyone will go with intel just shows how ignorant this article actually is…

aerows

Precisely. This article has no idea what audience AMD caters to, and I’d go so far as to say it isn’t just gamers. I don’t know if Intel’s driver division has ever caught up with flash on GPU. Intel has horrible graphics and graphics drivers. This is only disputed by Intel themselves and whomever they pay to whore out good reviews on their graphics and graphics drivers.

Deckard_Cain

Paid Intel shill.

Brian Thorp

I’m starting to agree. I saw other articles but I figured the author was just an ignorant fool. Intel has their place, along with AMD, VIA, ARM etc. I’ve been dying for graphics that are desktop quality (even if low tier) on mobiles for 15 years, now its about damn time!

hotteamix

Wrong reasons.

Just put an A10 on a $600-700 carbon or aluminium thin notebook with good display and it will sells like a hotcake.

Unfortunately, even with cheaper CPU it’s still doesn’t allow enough margin for that kind of price tag, evidently so as more and more Trinity laptop get unveiled.

My point is simply that AMD’s current strategy risks failing to fully capitalize on the ultrabook/ultrathin trend, similar to how it failed to capitalize on the netbook fad of yesteryear (though for different reasons, and primarily, a lack of participation). As a consumer who understands the value of a competitive landscape, that bothers me.

aerows

If you weren’t paid to write this, then you either don’t know what you are talking about or are anticipating getting paid by Intel at some point.

LOL. Intel is awful with graphics, and GPUs are becoming a significant part of computing these days. AMD understood this long ago and bought ATI. Intel couldn’t write a graphics driver to save their lives.

jescott418

I can’t say doomed either. Because as much as the Macbook Air is a great notebook. Not everyone needs or can afford a $1000 plus PC. I think too not everyone thinks the sun rises and sets with Apple. Considering how most consumers don’t do much more then run a browser with a PC. I find it hard to believe we can doom a ultralight by AMD.

The average consumer isn’t going to know or care about the ultrathin-Ultrabook distinctions. They’re going to look at the price, shape, weight and overall appearance, maybe at the processor and ram, maybe the OS, and decide. Ultrathins will have as much of a chance on the market as AMD computers ever did. People who aren’t hung up on “Intel Inside” won’t care.I also find it hard to believe Intel machines will actually compete on price. They’ll get the lower price by sacrificing things that will be included in similarly or lower priced AMD machines.

twistedlemon

If amd market it right they could dominate intel

Frantz Louis-Jacques Sr

AMD sold 30 millions APUs last year. Both Trinity and Brazos 2 improve on last year’s APU offerings and you conclude that they are doomed to failure, not because of anything intrinsic to their performance or aesthetics but because of your feelings? Get real and test either one out before you offer another uninformed opinion.

Judge_Chip

Great article Paul, Intel leads the way to high performance slim and thin mobile computing with its Ultrabooks. Great CPU performance combined with a good GPU is all that’s needed for most people, for the gamers adding a Kepler GPU will be a must have. AMD trinity lacks the CPU performance to keep up with Ivy, and the GPU performance to keep up with Kepler. AMD will try to ride Intel’s fast moving coat tails with cheaper under powered clones but will run into ARM at the low value end of the market. With Intel taking the high end and ARM coming up to take the low end AMD will get squeezed out to meager fringe market.

Paul Lilly

I completely overlooked the ARM angle, but it will definitely be interesting to see what develops there once Windows 8 debuts.

Techthisbuffalo

sure intel beats amd in some instances with their CPU performance but makes up for it with its lower price point and frankly most consumers arent going to care for that extra 10% improvmenent they will go with AMD’s cheaper option and to counter that they have better graphics performance than intel and lol the 7970 is just a bit slower than the 680 so how can they not keep up and if you overclock your 7970 you can easily beat the 680 overclocked… so you point is invalid AMD will also follow the ARM path if you have read any recent reports.

Strelock

Adding keplar will raise the price to beyond what is already included with the AMD APU. Sure it may not be as fast, but we’re talking ultraportable thin and light machines here. If the customer was concerned about using it as a primary gaming machine they are making the wrong choice no matter which they go with. In my case even though I have always been heavy Intel and have both an i7 desktop and laptop, I would probably buy the AMD solution. Frankly, it’s a highly mobile tool when you are considering machines like this, not a desktop replacement.

I bought the A6-4400m HP laptop and its battery life is much longer than my i5 laptop which i use for work. I also have not noticed any performance difference between the two, and even installed the same applications on both machines.

I cant wait till the 17watt trinity is out on a slim notebook so i can buy a 11″ to 14″ for travel!

ET3D

I don’t see why AMD will have a problem competing with Intel on price. Take an Intel based Ultrabook, substitute and cheaper chipset and CPU from AMD, and you have a cheaper “ultrabook but not by name”. Couple that with AMD making no demands about the other components, and OEM’s are free to cut even more corners, which means even lower prices.

AMD had quite a bit of success with Brazos because it’s cheap for OEM’s, and I see no reason this strategy won’t work with ultrathins. The fact that consumers don’t do their research is what makes this work so well.

I’m sure OEM’s will play with the prices to hit the sweet point, but I can see AMD CPU’s as being an attractive choice for them, since they don’t have to pass all the savings to the consumer, and will still be able to make these laptops look attractive.

Mark Hahn

what an asinine article! people buy laptops by satisfying their needs. some people want a status symbol. some people want a device that’s easy to type on (and so will visit a store to test the keyboard.) some people want a decent-looking display (usually also judged in person.) yes, there’s a fringe of “enthusiasts” who judge first by specs, but you’ve got to get out of the echo chamber if you think that’s a significant number, or that those are “normal” people.

AMD will succeed if they get into highly usable devices with good price. “usable” means different things to different people, but the exact nature of the CPU are not high on many people’s weightings, whereas portability (small/thin/light) and battery life are usually the top two, along with decent keyboard and clear screen (which is mostly about resolution, not size.)

cppcrispy

I have a feeling that AMD is going to allow Intel to do all of the marketing and just ride the wave with decent hardware at a decent price.

DannyBoyJr

After using an AMD E-350 “netbook” for more than a year now, I would say that the CPU is a bigger bottleneck than the GPU. Plus, it is very weak for productivity use (encoding, compressing, etc.). So when the time comes to buy a new machine, I would definitely look into getting an Ivy Bridge cpu with HD4000 graphics.

Brian Thorp

The E-Series was designed for netbooks and “Bookshelf” PCs not laptop-sized netbooks like I’m sure you are using. My mother-in law got one due to price alone against my warnings of performance but loves it. I have two A-Series and they are as fast as my i5/i7 laptops from work (other than for gaming, but thats not the intel’s fault, its dells)

Brian Thorp

This is doomed to fail about as bad as my $700 dual gpu quad-core, blue ray, HD, 640GB 7200RPM laptop is doomed. I can play any game on the market and have 8 hours of battery life. Suck it, intel. I also have a /nicer/ but 4x as expensive i7 laptop that struggles to get 4 hours of life. It also has a dual-gpu (intel/nvidia) weighs twice as much and has a solid state but i hate it compared to my HP. Diversity leads to market competition so people will cram more into these tiny things than before, at a lower cost since its AMD. and with fusion, I can at least play SC2 or Diablo or Crysis 2 etc.

nvidiasucks

WOW, Ignorance at its best (This site is known to be an Intel and Nvidia shill site)

kukreknecmi

Arent 17w Trinity’s supposed to be in ultrathins, not Brazos??

obarthelemy

I’m doubtful. Intel is trying to convince us that Laptops have suddenly stopped becoming naturally thinner and lighter like they have been since the beginning, and that thinness and lightness are a premium feature we should pay extra for. This is bunk. Mini-ITX motherboards now offer as many, if not more, features as full-size ones. The same evolution has happened in laptops, with cooler CPUs, smaller disks, denser RAM, no optical drive, less ancillary circuitry due to richer-featured chipsets…

In other words, laptop are naturally getting smaller. This is NOT a premium feature, just a marketing trick. AMD has a shot at bringing sanity to the market, shooting down delusions of grandeur, and just capitalizing on the fact that… well, regular laptops are ultra/thin/razor/…-books. And can be sold at a normal price.

Hey Author, you dont know the subject))) AMD sell best ultrathins on the market. Just take a look at new Asus, Samsung or HP.

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